Sunday, August 29, 2010

Are you a hard worker? Do you see what needs to be done and do it, or do you ignore it? I hope you're the type that gets things done. Prepping and homesteading are hard work! Did you realize that when you woke up and realized that you needed to prep?? It involves staying on top of your needs and doing the work required to meet them. Shopping for great deals, gardening, canning, freezing or dehydrating, maintaining your 'stuff', rotating foods, staying alert to danger, and more. It's hard work, sometimes from sun-up to sun-down! When I get tired, I encourage myself to keep going by remembering Pa Ingalls' (Little House on the Prairie) words that he had to 'make hay while the sun shines'. Sure, he was tired and had 20 other things to do, but the most urgent work had to be done while it was most pressing and advantageous to do it.

Yesterday, I was up at 6:30 to finish cooking down tomatoes to make sauce. By a little after 9:00 the sauce was in jars and in the canners. Then it was time to make breakfast for hubby and daughter and son-in-law who stopped by. Then a friend stopped by to pick green beans with me (I'm sharing with her), and then of course we had to snap and can them. Wash dishes. Now it's getting close to 3:00 and I have to get a load of laundry on the line and run to the grocery store for a few things. While there, I see a great sale on strawberries, so I pick up a few extra boxes. While doing dinner preparations I wash and hull the berries and lay them on trays in the freezer. Dinner, dishes, removing laundry from the line, fold and put away. Now I've got to move the berries from the trays to freezer bags. More dishes. Finally I get to sit, but of course I have a few cloth napkins to fold while I'm sitting. (I hope you're still with me!!) I wrote all this to show that I was 'making hay while the sun shines'. Beans are green in the garden, tomatoes are red, and both foods need to be put up or be lost! Clothes lines need to be utilized while the weather's nice. When you find a food you use on a great special, buy it and put it up in a way you'll use it later. Do the hard work that needs to be done and land on the couch at the end of the day feeling tired, but satisfied with the work you accomplished!

Work is a good thing, and being a hard worker is an asset that is lacking in far too many people these days. When raising my kids my first and foremost goal was that they be Christians. Secondly, I wanted them to be hard workers. (Both hubby and I are from hard working families!) I believe that if you work hard, you can survive anything. Lose your dream job? Well, if you find another--even if it's flipping burgers at burger joint--if you work hard you'll survive. Hubby's company was on strike one time, and to help make ends meet he got a job doing lawn mowing during the hour's he wasn't on the picket line. Don't be afraid to 'stoop below' yourself. Hard work is something to be proud of no matter what it is!

I was picking green beans with my sister and her 7- and 9-year old kids one day. She was reminding them (as I used to do to my kids) that the Bible says that if you don't work, you shouldn't eat! She wants them to grow to be hard workers who understand where their food comes from and hopefully love taking part in the process. When we went in the house with our beans, cukes, broccoli, and blackberries, my 9-year old niece remarks that I don't need to go to the grocery store very often! Isn't that something?? A 9-year old can see that by doing a bit of work, growing whatever you're able, you can keep yourself out of the grocery store a bit more! That's preparedness in my book!!

2 comments:

Wow! I'm tired just reading this. lol How neat is it that your niece is so insightful. I love it when light bulbs go on and the young ones are learning. She will always remember going to her aunts house getting farm fresh food. Great Post! I need to read things like this to keep myself in gear.

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